The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for sharing information between terminals on a network. More particularly, the invention relates to a program which allows, for example, a plurality of information processing apparatuses located on a network to reproduce and output contents data in a manner in which data and data-handling functions are shared therebetween; a network system including a plurality of terminal apparatuses making up such information processing apparatuses sharing the data and functions by use of the inventive program; and a terminal apparatus and a server apparatus constituting part of the inventive network system.
Terminal apparatuses which are interconnected by the Internet or via a LAN (local area network) and which retain files on their local hard discs are capable of sharing these files therebetween. Some application programs (file-sharing applications) today are known to offer more visually oriented GUI (graphical user interface) features for file-sharing operations than before.
FIG. 20 shows a typical application window display offered by such a file-sharing application program in a GUI format in a related art. The terminal apparatuses that are to share files therebetween over a network each have the file-sharing application program installed in advance. These terminal apparatuses are typically personal computers or PDAs (personal digital assistants) connected to the network.
Booting the file-sharing application program installed in any one of the networked terminal apparatuses causes an application window 400 to appear on the screen, which is one GUI feature of the program. In the application window 400, a plurality of file layout frames 401 are provided in the background as illustrated. This example shows an array of 15 file display frames 401 having frame numbers 01 through 15. A user at any one of the terminal apparatuses involved may drag-and-drop desired files (i.e., file icons) onto any of the file layout frames 401 in the application window 400.
The drag-and-dropped files have their icons displayed in the destination file layout frame 401 in superposed fashion. In FIG. 20, the file layout frames 401 with frame numbers 01 through 04 have still image data icons 402P displayed therein. Each of the icons 402P is shaped to suggest what is contained in the corresponding file. The file layout frames 401 with frame numbers 06 and 07 display audio data file icons; the file layout frames 401 with frame numbers 08 and 09 show icons of document files in different file formats.
After the files are laid out as described in the application window 400 by drag-and-drop operations, users at the multiple terminal apparatuses interconnected by the network may boot the same file-sharing application program. With the application window 400 displayed on each terminal apparatus, the files are shared, for example, as described below.
Suppose that the icon of a given file is placed within a given file layout frame 401 in the application window 400 on one of the plurality of terminal apparatuses (terminal apparatus A). In such a case, the icon of the same file appears within the same file layout frame 401 in the application window 400 on any of the other terminal apparatuses (terminal apparatus B).
Suppose also that a file is placed within the application window 400 on the terminal apparatus A so that the icon of that file is displayed anew in the application window 400 on the terminal apparatus B, and that the user at the terminal apparatus B has performed an operation to save the file in question. In that case, the terminal apparatus B acquires the file denoted by the icon from the terminal apparatus A over the network and saves the obtained file onto a local hard disc of the terminal apparatus B. This is how files are typically shared over the network.
One disadvantage of the related-art file-sharing application software is that it allows each of the networked terminal apparatuses to perform only limited operations on shared files, such as saving desired files into local storage. If an improved file-sharing application program offered more functions allowing the networked terminal apparatuses to share files in diverse processes including rendering and editing, the benefits to the users of the terminal apparatuses will be appreciably enhanced.
Preferably, such improved file-sharing applications should be furnished with file-processing functions not in a fixed fashion, but on a plug-in basis offering a high degree of flexibility as to the manner in which files are shared. This will provide a greater potential for expansion in terms of shared file processing.